Besides the captivating title (The hundred year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared) it was the reassuring tone of this line that got me hooked. A declaration of intent: “Here I am, right here and right now, standing alone between the Contents page and Chapter 1 and holding my own!”. I felt calm already and moved on to the 389 pages that followed, happy as a cat in the sun.

Shout if you loved it just for its wit and originality, and plainly by-passed the copious references to 20th century politics. For me the amount of historical facts sealed the deal, but it left me wondering: Do you need to be an international studies scholar to find this book so appealing?

Nothing glassy and jarry today, but then it is only day 1 of ofglassandbooks! Then again, I did look up some canning starter kits just earlier…